Machine for forming sheet-metal lathing



(No Model.)

J. WEIGHHART.

MACHINE FOR FORMING SHEET METAL LATHING. No. 446,939. Patented Feb. 24,1891.

JOHN WEIOHHART, OF SA MACHINE FOR FORMING "PATENT- OFFICE.

\ FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

SH EET-METAL LATHING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 446,939, dated February 24, 1891.

Application filed July 15, 1890.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be' it known that 1, JOHN EICHHART, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Forming Sheet-Metal Lathing, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in the feed mechanism of machines for forming sheet-metal lathing upon which Letters Patent of the United States, Nos. 401,522 and 401,523, were granted to me 011 the 16th of April, 1889; and it consists in certain novel construction and combination of parts, producing a feed mechanism of considerable simplicity, as hereinafter particularly described.

The nature of the said improvement and' the manner in which I proceed to construct and apply the same will be understood from the following description and the drawings that accompany and form part of this specification.

Figure 1 represents in side elevation and partly in section that part of the machine at the bending or corrugating mechanism where the feeding attachment is placed. Fig. 2 is a top view or plan of the same.

A is a bed or table of the machine. B B are the metal bending or corrugating dies, and O the movable bottom. These parts are constructed and operated the same as in my said former machines already patented. V

The feed attachment which constitutes the feature of the present invention consists, mainly, of oscillating feed pawls or fingers operated with intermittent movement by a rock-shaft and arranged to act directly upon the sheet of metal, thereby dispensing with the feed frame or carriage that is employed in my former machines to move the sheet step, by step under the bending mechanism.

D is a rock-shaft set across the bed in front of the dies in supports E E'and receiving in-' termittent rocking movement in proper time during the movements of the bending-dies through the medium of the two sets of gears Gr G G2 and the racks H H at opposite sides of the machine.

I I are two arms fixed to this rock-shaft,to

the lower ends of which two feed pawls or fingers K K are pivoted.

Serial No. 358,821. (No model.)

L L are springs bearing upon the feed-fingers from above to hold them against the sheet of metal, and M M are spring-pressers fixed at one end to a slotted cross-bar above the table and at their outer ends bcari ng upon the sheet. The office of these springs is to hold the sheet down upon the table. In addition to these springs, there are rigid bars N N fixed at one cndto the same slotted cross-piece over the table and having their free ends extending over the sheet of metal toward the bendingdies in such position that they are not in contact with the sheet while it is being fed and being bent, but are yet so close to the sheet that their outer ends act as stops to limit the upward movement of the sheet when the finished bend or corrugation is being pushed upward out of the die by the movable bottom. Both these rigid and non-elastic bars and the spring-pressers M are attached to the slotted cross-piece by bolts m n, so that they are adj ustable for sheets of various widths, as they are set to act on the sheet closely at the sides or edges of it.

The fingers K are of such length that they engage the last-formed groove or bend in the sheet, and their movements are so timed with respect to the punches and dies of the bending mechanism that as the punches leave the sheet and rise clear of the table the fingers move forward and drop into the groove at the same time that the movable bottom of the die is throwing up this finished corrugation clear of the die.

The rock-shaft D is actuated from the racks H H, that operate the movable bottom, through the connect-inggears before described, and

shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. As the finger engages the sheet, the length of forward stroke at each feeding movement is sufficient to move the last bend or angle beyond the outer edge of the bottom die, when the sheet drops into position over the bottom die, with the vertical face of the last bend of the sheet against the standing side of the die. Fig. 1 illustrates the position of the parts when the sheet is raised out of the die by the movable bottom and the feeding-fingers engaging the lastformed groove or corrugation in the sheet are about to move forward. At such time their length of stroke is sufficient to bring the cor- I rugation beyond the die and let the last bend drop over the outer edge, so that the plate will set ilat upon the top face of the die at the end of the feed. The plate is thus moved forward step by step by the direct engagement of the feeding-fingers with the last-formed corrugation.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine for bending or eorrugating sheet metal, the combination, with a suitable table and eorrugating-dies, of a reek-shaft having intermittent movement with respect to the operations of the eorrugating-dies, and oscillating fingers or pawls on said rock-shaft adapted to engage the last-formed bend or corrugation in the sheet and having a length 0. W. M. Snrrn, ALFRED A. ENQUIS'I.

[in s] 

